'Daddy Was Coming Over for My Birthday, and He Shot People'

A Brooklyn girl was supposed to be celebrating her 9th birthday with her parents and two older sisters Monday. Instead, her father allegedly shot and killed her mom and sisters, then fatally shot himself. The NYPD chief of detectives says the girl sobbed in a "heartbreaking" 911 call after the incident, the New York Post reports. She said "Daddy was coming over for my birthday, and he shot people," the chief says, and also said, per ABC 7, "He didn't bring presents." Motive is not clear, but neighbors say suspect Joseph McCrimons, 46, and victim Rasheeda Barzey had loud fights, and relatives say their years-long relationship was contentious.

McCrimons was not the father to Barzey's older daughters, victims Chloe Spears, 16, and Solei Spears, 20. Police say there is no official history of domestic violence between the couple, and no prior 911 calls related to them, but, per NBC New York, that their relationship had recently been "rocky" and McCrimons was "agitated" when he left to see Barzey that night. When he was 18, McCrimons was convicted of manslaughter for fatally shooting a man who broke up a fight he was watching. Barzey's former brother-in-law says McCrimons had previously been hospitalized for a mental illness, and had attempted suicide before. The 9-year-old was found hiding in a closet when police arrived. (In Texas, two brothers' "suicide pact" was blamed for an entire family being slaughtered.)